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Arnd Marijnissen: Just a Guy

In IT, everything is automated, but nothing simply runs by itself. On the other side of your screen, there are many unseen smart people who continuously fix bugs. Arnd is such a guy. For twenty years now he has worked as a Unix System Administrator for internet providers. You won’t find much about him online, as he is not the social media type. On hacker fora, he usually chats under the nickname ‘Justa’, which stands for ‘Just a guy’. He also won’t just disclose the vulnerabilities he might find; rather he will fix them behind the screens. According to him, the kick of fixing the bug is outsmarting your own stupidity.

Within the hacker scene he is pretty well known. Since 2000, he often visits hacker conferences throughout Europe. During the German outdoor Chaos Computer Camp of 2011, the idea emerged of establishing a new hackerspace in Amsterdam: Technologia Incognita, or Techinc. Until recently, Arnd was chair of the board, but now he mainly goes there to be away from the keyboard and to tinker with drones, quadcopters, and other subversive electronics. He also brews his own beer, hacker style: IPAv6, which can be poured from a ‘Lawful Interception Internet Tap’. IPAv4 is currently being phased out….